Late Night Consoling

In the latest podcast from Stephen "Gaming Steve" Glicker, Glicker previewed EA LA's Xbox 360 version of The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth II (PC, X360). After suggesting that the game may start a trend towards more strategy titles being released on Xbox 360, he went on to explicitly state that Command & Conquer 3 (PC), also by EA LA, will also be developed for Xbox 360, though it has currently only been announced for PC. Glicker did not cite a source for his comment. "I know for a fact that they are doing this because these are the same guys, the same team, who's doing Command & Conquer 3, and they're definitely gonna release it for the 360," he said, claiming that BFME2 360 is in part a design testbed for a console version of C&C3.

Glicker also interviewed Louis Castle, current VP of creative development for EA LA as well as co-founder of original Command & Conquer developer Westwood Studios. Castle did not address or respond to any questions or comments regarding Command & Conquer 3 or the alleged 360 port, though he did indicate that EA is prototyping other strategy games for the console.

As of now, Glicker's comment is merely rumor, though it seems fairly plausible. Whether it pans out may depend on the critical and retail success of Battle for Middle-earth II on Xbox 360.

GameDaily has posted an interview with Namco Bandai producer Daisuke Uchiyama speaking about the company's upcoming Dragon Ball Z titles Super DBZ (PS2) and Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2, Wii). At one point, GameDaily asked if a Namco development team might one day work on a Dragon Ball Z title, published by Bandai prior to the Namco Bandai merger. Uchiyama seemed to indicate that this will not be happening any time soon, since Namco's Tekken and Soul Calibur teams are already busy on new games. Tekken 6 (PS3) has already been announced, but this appears to be the first mention from Namco Bandai of a new Soul Calibur game. GameDaily presumes the title is Soul Calibur 4, though since Uchiyama did not clarify further, it may be also be a spinoff title of some kind. The last Soul Calibur title, Soul Calibur III, was a PS2 home console exclusive. No target platforms were given for this new series entry.

Officially, Sony has always referred to PS2 as the PlayStation 2 Computer Entertainment System. One benefit of such a moniker is that computers (specifically, "automatic data processing machines") are exempt from certain European Union trade tariffs, whereas, until January 1, 2004, game consoles were not. Since 2001, Sony has been attempting to have PS2 recognized as a computer, which would keep the company from being subject to those tariffs. Specifically, a game console is defined as "a video game of a kind used with a television receiver." Last week, Lord Justice Chadwick of the English Court of Appeal ruled that PlayStation 2 indeed fits that criteria. As a result, Sony will not be entitled to the estimated 50M Euro (US$50M) refund in taxes it sought.

Lord Justice Chadwick also took issue with "the manner in which Sony's case has been presented to the Court," for various reasons. "The skeleton argument filed in this Court on behalf of Sony goes beyond what can be regarded as acceptable written advocacy: it exceeds the bounds of propriety," wrote Chadwick. "I am not here protesting about its inordinate length, nor about its discursive quality, nor about its frequent and unnecessary resort to hyperbole; although all those unappealing features are present. My concern is with the repeated aspersions that are cast in that document on the intellectual honesty of the High Court Judge from whose decision this appeal is brought."

A Next Generation interview published last week with RedOctane president Kai Huang suggests that more Guitar Hero-like games are "very, very likely" to come from the publisher. "The next logical step within this category is to make other music instrument-based games," said Huang. "What most people have been asking for and would want next are products that we're likely already working on." In regards to next generation machines, he cited online capability as more pertinent to music-based games than increased graphical horsepower. "We will [utilize online features]," he said. "As far as games like Guitar Hero and other music games that we have in the pipeline are concerned, I think there are going to be significant changes to the gameplay."

Huang did not indicate as to whether such products are being developed by Guitar Hero (PS2) and Guitar Hero II (PS2) developer Harmonix Music Systems. In past interviews, Harmonix has indicated that it is likely to branch out to multiple platforms in the future, despite its games traditionally releasing to PlayStation 2.

Nintendo has confirmed last week's reports that a shipment of UK-bound DS Lite units was intercepted and put on the black market. However, it appears that the systems were white, not black as previously thought. The company does not expect the theft to seriously impact its launch plans. "Nintendo is making every effort to ensure that there is enough product available in the UK to meet market demand at launch," said a company spokesperson.

DS Lite launches in the UK later this week.

Shark-centric action title Jaws Unleashed (PS2, Xbox, PC), developed by Ecco the Dolphin creators Appaloosa Interactive, seems like the ideal candidate for a cult hit: bizarre but oddly appealing premise, gory subject matter, questionable production values. It appears the game may very well be settling into that role. Today, publisher Majesco Entertainment announced that the game has sold over 100,000 units in North America since its launch on PS2 and Xbox at the end of May.

The PC version of Jaws Unleashed ships to retailers this week.

Gamasutra has an in depth postmortem on Quantic Dream's Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit) from designer David Cage, speaking about the process of creation as well as what went right and what went wrong.

Game Informer has a video interview with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) developers Kensuke Tenabe, Bryan Walker, and Mark Pacini.